Dear Friends,

I have been wondering for a long time why more teachers haven't risen up in protest to the high-stakes program that they have been forced to subject students to over the last two decades. I understand that some actually believe that the tests are okay while others grit their teeth every time they have to administer yet another in the endless battery of pre-tests, post-tests, diagnostic tests, and state-mandated tests or tests required by the federal government. I have been heartened by what has been happening in recent weeks with regard to the Garfield High School teachers in Seattle, Washington. They have joined together and said "enough is enough," and they are refusing to give a mandated test for which they see no value and believe is a waste of time and effort on their part to administer and on the part of their students to take.

This morning, I have learned that students in Providence, Rhode Island are planning to stage a protest against high stakes testing this week. On Wednesday afternoon, they plan to hold a rally protesting the inordinate amount of testing to which they are being subjected. Information about their movement may be found here.

The winds of change are beginning to indicate, I believe, that more and more people are questioning the "wisdom" of those who have mandated high-stakes testing as the way to improve education in our country. Everyone disdains the notion that teaching has been reduced to "teaching to the test," while everyone is also aware that the only way to make sure students do well on the tests they are subjected to is to make sure they have been prepared thoroughly and well. "Drill and kill" has become the order of the day. Teachers are held hostage as to how well their students do, and the only variable that anyone "in charge" wishes to take a serious look at is the "quality" of the individual teacher with no concern or attention to childhood poverty, the lack of general health care for a large number of children entering our classrooms every day and other circumstances over which the teacher has absolutely no control.

I follow Diane Ravitch's blog carefully. She is in a position because of her professional integrity, her international reputation and her ability to sift through tons of information and distill it in a way that people can easily grasp to offer hope to those of us who are waiting for a major shift in the current climate. She feels it...I feel it. I believe that we are fast approaching a tipping point where those who are aware of the harm being doing to children are finally being heard.

I have hope, and I wish the students in Providence, Rhode Island and the teachers at Garfield High School well. I want them to succeed in their protests, and I want others to follow suit...and quickly. Before it is too late.

Until next time,

Kittyhttp://www.providencestudentunion.org/more-than-a-test-score